American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

When Bauer first accepts the job at Winn, he has every reason to view the inmates with empathy. He understands the inequity built into the penal system, his worldview is progressive, and he has been on the other side of the bars as a prisoner in Iran’s Evin prison. For much of his four-month tenure, he tries to treat the inmates with humanity and care, but that empathy erodes with the constant barrage of animosity, verbal taunts, and threats of violence. The lack of order and compliance is enough to try the patience of even the gentlest soul, and by the end Bauer finds himself reacting to situations in the same hardened way as the most jaded CO on the tier. He “bark[s] at inmates to sit up on their bunks like the DOC officers did. If they are asleep, I kick their beds [...]. I just write inmates up all day long” (268). Even more disturbing is how Bauer begins to accept and even savor these changes in his behavior. Like a soldier who continues to reenlist because he has grown addicted to the adrenaline rush of combat, Bauer hesitates to resign, even after the changes begin to strain his marriage.